1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a television game console, more particularly to an improved game cartridge for a television game console.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional television game console is shown to comprise a central processor unit (CPU) (10), a visual display unit (VDU) (11), a user interactive control unit (12), and an internal memory unit (13). Advancements in the field of integrated circuit technology have made it possible employ a single CPU (10) instead of the CPU and the peripheral processor unit (PPU) used in older The internal memory unit (13) is a static random access serves as an external memory unit, is connected to the television game console.
Referring to FIG. 2, a conventional game cartridge (14) comprises a casing (140) and a printed circuit board (PCB) (141) mounted inside the casing (140). A program memory unit (142) and a graphics memory unit (143) are mounted on the PCB (141). The PCB (141) further provided with 60 edge-board contacts (144) which serve to connect electrically the game cartridge (14) and the CPU (10). The program memory unit (142) contains the characteristics of the game, such as the order and duration of particular events, the time when a particular playing unit or background scenery should appear, and the movement of the playing units. The graphics memory unit (143) is divided into different storage locations, each containing background music information or data corresponding to the bit patterns that make up a particular playing unit or background scenery. For example, data in first and second storage locations of the graphics memory unit (143) may contain the bit pattern of . the face or whole body of a respective one of two playing units. When the CPU (10) is activated to start the game, the CPU (10) receives commands from the internal memory unit (13), thereby enabling the former to gather program data from the program memory unit (142). Based on data from the program memory unit (142), the CPU (10) retrieves the faces or whole bodies of the playing units from the graphics memory unit (143) so as to show the same on the VDU (11). The program data in the program memory unit (142) is used to control the positions of the playing units, the times when the playing units should appear, and the movement of the playing units. The CPU (10) is further provided with a graphic data processing network which converts data from the graphics memory unit (143) into a radio frequency signal that is sent to the VDU (11). The control unit (12), such as a keyboard, a joystick or a computer mouse, enables the user to react and influence events during the course of the game. This illustrates how a conventional television game console operates.
A main drawback of the conventional game cartridge (14) is that the data in the graphics memory unit (143) is stored beforehand and cannot be changed when desired. Thus, the appearance of the playing units cannot be changed so as to resemble the user and/or his friends.